Dream of Dreams - Solo

[Ace_of_Spades]

I am venturing part way in the Berevar. I am to understand things get more difficult the further you venture in but I just need some isolation for this quest and it sounded like a good plan to do so here.

Step after step I took, the snow crunching beneath my feet. I knew I wouldn’t die, but still I was uncomfortable and in pain. It wasn’t until a day in the Kalev Highlands that I dreamed a dreamed of my power and my horror that I once possessed. I still was unaware if it was my cause or not, if my power was good or not, if my strange urges for blood and death were more than just urges and more my soul reaching to me telling me who I am. I needed answers.

Still I pressed forth and yet my thoughts still drifted to that dream of dreams. I had power, power that made the earth shake or so it seemed. Maybe it was dream but a dream that felt more like a memory than anything else. What had happened to my power and why is it that in my dreams I have no marks on my body but now I’m riddled with enigmatic symbols. I’ve learned that what little power I do have is in fact triggered by these marks, but to what end, I wasn’t sure.

Snow began to fall hard on my face snapping me back to reality away from my thoughts. Off in the distance I saw smoke coming from what looked like a nomad camp. Barbarians, I thought. Do I risk my life or should I trust in my power? I made up my mind and decided to head onwards for the nomadic camp still miles away.

The air was much warmer than I could remember. Did I fall asleep? Everything was hazy, but the heat was intense. Molten rock crashed below me as I was suspended in the air observing. I saw myself sitting in the middle of a strange symbol with my eyes completely black. I wondered if that’s what my eyes really looked like. Thinking back I’ve really only seen myself in a reflection of still water and I didn’t even bother to see what color my eyes were. I knew this wasn’t a dream simply because I was conscious and aware, but not in control.

Eventually my alter ego that was sitting in the odd symbol awoken revealing the troubling eyes that I’ve never seen before. They were blood red but it wasn’t just the color that bothered me. This man’s heart was not my heart, his soul not my soul, and his eyes not my eyes. This man looked cold and murderous, and I could only hope that I didn’t mimic such a hideous, sinister look. I heard footsteps of more and more men descending into what I could only fathom now as an arena marked and sealed in blood.

I watched as my other-self waited in arrogance as these soldiers haplessly ran into battle. It was then I reacted, well my past self reacted, with an unusual sneer. Out of no where, the soldiers reacted with solid fear to absolutely nothing but then I noticed their shadows were in contact with mine. The soldiers were paralyzed with fear which quickly turned into anger against one another. A few soldiers had there shadows separated and quickly went back to normal but it was too late as they were quickly overcome by those still under his control. My other self was laughing as the men slaughtered one another. It was the same dream again as before but this time my other self seemed aware of my presence as he looked at me and said “Learn from what you see. You’ll need everything to become what you’re destined to be!”

The bitter cold came back to fast as I was face down in the snow with men holding swords and spears to my face. I could only imagine that I had been wandering too close in my dreamlike state. They grabbed at me harshly pulling me to my feet. I was surprised to find that my weapons were still on me and almost too late as I felt the air change from a man jumping through the air. His huge heavy sword came down where my body should have been but I was no longer there. I stood with my blades drawn and already back to attacking.

The man’s heavy sword went down into the ice becoming stuck. It was bad for him but good for me as this would be a test. I descended upon him leaving one of my blades in his neck as my other blade cleared his head from his body and it felt wonderful. I couldn’t understand why I felt the way I did, but it saved my life for the moment and that’s all I needed. I removed my blade from his body and readied my self to attack again, but this man that was huge by all means of the word stood up and silenced the crowd around me. “Welcome traveler. You have proved yourself quite expertly by our standards.”

I held my tongue and didn’t insult them. Their standards were poor if that savage attack was considered a test and then to be considered expertly done by anyone’s standards was sad. I continued to listen to the leader none-the-less. “You are welcome to stay as long as you wish or until we decide to move places with our food.” I nodded.

“Well thank you. I am not sure how long I will stay but I do need to replenish my strength.” It wasn’t too much longer before they fed me and led me to a tent where I was to be staying. They offered me women, however, I refused the offerings of flesh. I needed to rest, I needed to think about this dream that I kept dreaming, and I needed answers from my past. I needed to find myself, and I hoped I would have time in this place away from the cold.

[Ace_of_Spades]

I awoke to fire all around me and the smell of burning flesh. Buildings burned with an intense flame that seemed so sinister and so dangerous. I heard the screaming of children and cries of mothers were running through the flames of this village quickly silenced by an unseen force. I broke out into a run hoping that I could at least make it to save a few of them from what was destroying their lives. Buildings twisted and warped out of view as I quickly rushed by but nothing seemed to change. I felt as if I were where I started when this madness began.

I stopped to catch my breath as the flames still licked my skin. The world felt as if it were spinning around me till suddenly I was jolted into a surreal sense of pain and a feeling of being alive. I looked down to see the edge of a blade protruding through the center of my chest where my heart should have been. “Relax you have no heart and no soul.” The voice was seemingly familiar but I couldn’t picture the face. My mind was too focused on the blood now on my hands. I screamed from pain and fell the ground from dizzying pain. Suddenly it was all gone; the pain and the sword. I quickly turned to see my assailant but again nothing.

With the pain gone I stood up and began to run again; the distant screams becoming ever present. I ran and before my mind even recognized what I saw I stopped dead in my tracks. My same self from my dreams before stood dauntingly over a family literally ripped to pieces. “You know why you have no heart and no soul?” A sinister smile went across his face as I still stood in shock suddenly I blinked and again everything went back to normal as if nothing had happened. “COME BACK!” I screamed into the emptiness answered only with emptiness.

My thoughts were racing now; I couldn’t believe that there was a chance that I was a mad man, a murderer. Again I heard screams and pleas but not of woman and children but of grown men begging for their lives. I didn’t want to see what was next, so I walked slower and slower as the cries grew louder and louder. Tears crossed me face as I saw what I already knew I’d see. I saw myself with blood on my blades and men, parts of men, laying at the feet of my dream self. “You are a murderer, you felt it earlier today when you killed that man. You feel it every time blood spills onto your hands, and you enjoy it!”

“NO! This can not be my fate, this is not me! YOU! Are not me!”

“OH! But I am Hyro Izuahl, Demon Prince, HEIR TO THE DARKNESS!” His voice echoed as I barely understood his words. The darkness, demon prince; none of which had any meaning to me but his voice sounded proud and arrogant as if he couldn’t be stopped. “We look slightly different Hyro Izuahl but I do in fact promise you that we are one in the same and you can not escape my shadow. They will remember you, they will find you but do not fear I’ll prepare you the best I can and reshape you into what I once was…”

I awoke sweating to the intense flames of the fire pit in the tent these barbarians were so graciously giving to me. The night was not over as I ventured out into the open air. The grip of the Berevarian cold quickly cooled the sweat on my forehead. I couldn’t tell whether I was frightened or scared but I knew this wouldn’t be the last dream or nightmare that would force me to face who I really was, but did it truly have any significance or was I simply going to be what I used to be. I didn’t even know if those dreams were even truth and reality but I couldn’t ignore them.

The large leader approached as I found myself weaponless. He was, however, not hostile which was a welcome feeling after such a long night. “You know warrior I never caught your name, but I heard you scream all across camp. ‘Hyro Izuahl’ is it? It does have a ring, but it is of no consequence. I can tell your troubled.”

“Yeah you could say something of the sort. I awoke up to about a month ago. I have no idea who I am or what I am. All I have is these dreams of the past, well more of nightmares.”

“Do you wish to divulge more so that I may help you?”

I hesitated at first due to the content of the nightmares and the atrocities that I apparently committed. “No not now. I don’t quite understand the dreams myself but for now I wish to keep it a secret.” The leader nodded and appeared to be thinking hard. I felt small compared to him as I full noticed his size and power. If he had decided to attack me first instead of his warrior then I would surely have died the day before.

“Perhaps there is something you can do for yourself. “ He looked off into the distance as he spoke as if in his own world. “There are such things, forms of meditation, which make you face yourself. I can help find a path that only you alone can walk.”

The way this leader spoke was incredibly intelligent for being so far north from any kinds of civilization. I didn’t think it would hurt anything but I could only imagine the difficulty and the challenges of such a path. “I will take your help, but I warn you we may both not like what I find out about myself. I can only ask for forgiveness in advance.” The large man laughed half-heartedly but understood the gravity of my words.